Juneau Area Avalanche Advisory
2005-12-22
Mt. Stewart
by Bill Glude, SAAC Observer
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Joined by longtime observer Mike Janes, just back in town, we went up Mt. Stewart today to see how our already-scant snowpack fared in the last thaw. We were relieved to find snow remaining on the more wind-sheltered slopes above 650m, but terrain that was exposed to the strong SE winds on the night of the 20th was thin to bare even at ridgetop level. At lower elevations, the November ice patches were melting where they were exposed, and the snow on them was mostly gone.

The snowpack is into full spring conditions, gone to melt-freeze as it would in May or June of a normal year. In places it is soft and sticky to 5 or 10cm depth, and in other places patches of softening ice crust remain on the surface.

There were none of the seven signs of instability present today, and we had no results from slope tests to 45°+ other than a few cinnamon roll snowballs in the softer spots. We did no pit studies because the layers in our snowpack before the thaw would not show much of interest from further wetting, and the areas of continuous snowcover were too small to find good representative sites.

It was +3°C on top of Mt. Stewart today and there was bare thawed tundra to eat lunch on, something normally not possible before the end of April or early May. We put on windbreakers and hats due to a SE breeze, but needed no fleece or gloves. A few slushy raindrops fell occasionally. We were able to ski with caution to 650m, though we had to take the boards off a couple times on the way down to there.

The Juneau snow tribes are hoping that the slight cooling forecast in the next few days brings snow to at least the higher elevations. Damp new snow is likely to bond fairly well to the wet snow surface, so long as the wet snow does not freeze first.
Field Notes
We took no pit notes today due to the thin and springlike snowpack.
Photos
We have been showing this perspective of the NE Bowl in our advisories for snowcover comparison from day to day. It is rockier today than it has been in a couple weeks, especially on the windward side of terrain features that were exposed to the warm SE winds two nights ago.
If we showed you only this shot of the snow surface and asked you what month it was, you'd probably guess May or June, not late December. We now have full-on spring ski conditions, ranging from 5 to 10 cm of slow, sticky slush to a few icy patches. There was even bare and thawed tundra on top of Mt. Stewart, but the Cooley's buttercups are NOT blooming there yet so we still hold hope that winter will return to Alaska!
The upper half of Eaglecrest still has a fair amount of snow, but the snowcover ends abruptly at about the top of the Hooter chairlift, near the left edge of this photo.
The wind-exposed and lower slopes of the ridges above Fish Creek and beyond have very little snow now.
Fog remained in the Mendenhall Valley and hung in other low spots under an overcast sky all day, but it was quite nice above the fog and a few breaks gave us brief views of the sun.
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